Several members of the panel echoed the criticism, pointing to reports that 1.78 million U.S. students have reported trying electronic cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration has proposed regulations for the products, though finalization of the rules could drag on for many months.

In the meantime, the companies maintained that they are not marketing to kids. Blu eCigs President Jason Healy pointed to voluntary restrictions limiting the firm’s ads to media and events where the target audience is at least 85 percent adult.

“To be clear, no minor should be using a nicotine-containing product of any kind,” concurred NJOY President Craig Weiss.

The two men insisted that their products could eventually make traditional “combustion” cigarettes obsolete. A shift to e-cigs, which delivers nicotine through vapor, rather than smoke and tar, could improve public health, some have suggested.

“We are appalled at the toll that the tobacco epidemic has taken and continues to take each year on this country,” Weiss testified.

Several members of the panel indicated they were not buying the argument and said the electronic industry was doing little more than following the big tobacco playbook, which includes the use of favored brands and celebrity spokespeople.